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Report transcript in: Damian’s Autism Discovery (Part 1)
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Damian’s Autism Discovery (Part 1)
Please Report the Errrors?
Can you tell me a bit about your autism journey?
Um,
Well,
up until 2023,
I had no idea
that I was autistic,
um,
it was
through counselling with talking therapies
that I,
I,
I sort of discovered a little bit through them,
however,
my daughter had had an ADHD,
um.
An ADHD,
um,
diagnosis diagnosis,
well,
an assessment and diagnosis,
and she told me,
um.
Probably a year about before,
probably 2022 that she was having
this assessment
and.
I first of all thought,
no,
she's not got ADHD,
it's not a chance she's got ADHD,
um,
and she'd read into it a little bit too much on Facebook on on uh on Google and online,
um,
but she presented me with this list,
she's very thorough,
Beth,
um,
and she presented me with this list of all
the reasons that she thought she'd got ADHD.
And
I completely relate to every single point.
Almost
exactly,
which made me think,
well,
It's not necessarily ADHD.
I could explain a lot of bits and pieces,
so anyway.
That was back in maybe like I say 2023,
um.
I
then,
while I was.
Um,
in the middle of
some therapy with with talking therapies and it was just counselling,
um,
I was having relationship issues
with Beth,
and there was all sorts of other bits and pieces,
so it wasn't CBT counselling,
it was actually,
it was questions and answers.
And
I explained about Beth's autism,
uh Beth's ADHD,
and
halfway through the actual therapy,
she actually got a diagnosis of ADHD
which I then
wondered,
well,
Maybe I've got ADHD,
I presented it
literally like that to the therapist,
and towards the end of therapy,
uh,
which was,
I believe,
uh,
20 weeks of therapy,
he
said to me,
um,
We've come to the end of therapy,
um,
I believe you're showing traits of autism
and.
Um,
he highlighted two or three of them,
and he actually,
all he said was,
would you like some support
in finding out more?
Um,
and of course I thought,
well,
if that explains
a lot about
me and
my tiredness,
lots of other bits and pieces.
I didn't know anything about autism at the time,
but I thought
if that could potentially explain
more about me and my troubles.
I seem to be in and out of therapy when I have
certain relationship issues or certain problems doing things and um
I,
I decided to take up on,
on his,
um,
on his invite to actually have some professional support,
and he wrote a letter to my doctor,
my doctor I got essentially then got fast tracked
to have my
Autism
diagnosis,
whereas
if I'd have gone through the normal routes,
it would have been obviously taken years.
Um,
by the time I'd actually got my diagnosis.
Um,
I had to fill in
a huge form.
It must have been about,
I don't know,
10 pages,
and it took an awful lot of time,
it took an awful lot of energy.
I had,
I had to have my dad.
It wasn't necessarily my dad,
it was somebody close that had known me since I was
a young lad.
My mom passed in 2020,
so it was essentially my dad's.
Duty,
I suppose,
he was the best person to help
with the assessment and filling his half of the of the form,
um,
and,
while this was going on,
I was actually having
further CBT therapy,
um,
and,
strangely enough,
this girl also picked up on autistic traits.
The therapy was
not aimed at autism,
but halfway through the therapy,
I got the positive
for my autism,
and
that then changed
the way that she was
counselling me and giving me
therapy because
she
recognised that a lot of what
I was talking about was.
Completely connected with autism,
so she was able to actually help me.
Her brother,
who she'd literally brought up,
apparently she had not had the best
life,
and she'd essentially brought up her brother who was autistic,
so she was actually very,
very
familiar with autism.
Um,
and so the therapy changed,
um.
It,
it was very difficult when I got the
assessment,
uh the the the the actual diagnosis.
I'd actually already booked
a week away at the caravan,
uh because I wanted
time on my own to sort of
absorb.
What that actually meant because
even though I didn't want
autism.
I knew that
When I got autism,
I,
if it was a positive diagnosis,
that would have explained a lot of things about my past
and would have helped me out.
If I'd have been
diagnosed as not having autism,
I would have then had an awful lot of questions about my past still to answer.
So I'd already booked this
this week at the caravan,
and of course the diagnosis was positive,
so it gave me some chance
to sort of look into autism.
Before the actual autism,
um,
I decided
before the diagnosis,
I went into it blind.
I didn't want to find out about autism.
I didn't want to bias the situation,
the decision.
I wanted to write on paper.
Answers to the questions
based on what happened to me
without
any idea about what autism really was,
and I'm still learning about autism,
so I really didn't know.
So for it to come back
positive
was
um.
An eye opener and
it it's,
I'm still,
it's uh I actually got the diagnosis in
April 2025 this year,
uh so it's relatively new,
um,
I've got further support.
Since finishing my last bit of counselling,
that was,
ended up being more autism led,
but
that therapist also
helped me,
um,
with
a group called Respect for All,
uh who deal with neurodivergent,
Patients,
um,
but
the beauty of it all is,
is that all the counsellors,
all the therapists are all neurodivergent as well,
so
they,
they understand,
um.
Hopefully understand
me a little bit to do with,
with the therapy that I'm now getting,
um,
that's another 21,
22 weeks,
which I'm
week 5 into,
but alongside that,
I've also
been a part of a,
um,
an online
community,
uh,
we meet up on a Thursday night,
um,
we're all,
we're all autistic,
the person that's leading it is autistic.
Um,
and it's
pretty much a slideshow
with
gaps in between to talk
and
discuss
what we've learned from the slides,
but
it's essentially
what is autism.
Bold.
It's really deep
and it's it's we,
we,
we,
we find out
and talk about the latest
um scientific,
um,
Views on autism,
the findings of autism,
and it's,
that is really eye opening,
it's nice to be part of a group where you feel
that you are talking to
autistic people.
But finding out,
for example,
that everybody on the autistic spectrum is just as unique
as,
um,
people who are
neurotypical,
um,
It's very easy for somebody on the outside,
even for myself who is autistic,
before I knew more,
to think of autism as
Somebody a little bit chubby with headphones on,
uh,
stemming,
walking on the street stemming,
um,
and
potentially having learning difficulties on one level
but being extremely intelligent on another,
um.
We're all unique.
Um
And I'm still on that journey at the minute,
I'm still,
I'm still finding out more,
uh,
one of the biggest hurdles was,
um,
Up-big
